Case Study
$500+ found in 5 min in previously uncaptured billable time from a single weekly review
Firm Name
Vela Wood
Location
Austin & Dallas, TX
Practice Area
Corporate / M&A / VC
Firm Size
70+
Won VS PointOne
$420K
Billable $ Released in 30 Days
60
Active Users of 70 Employees
987
Billable Hours Released (30 Days)
3
Team Members Who Invested in Ajax
The Practice
Corporate Dealmakers Across Dallas and Austin
Vela Wood PC is a Chambers Spotlight-ranked corporate law firm with offices in Dallas and Austin. Founded in 2009, the firm handles M&A, private equity, venture capital, fund representation, and sports & gaming law across a team of 70 employees and 42 legal professionals. The firm has launched over 1,900 companies, facilitated $2B+ in venture financing, and $1.2B+ in M&A activity. Clients include the Tennessee Titans.
Corporate transactional work is uniquely challenging for timekeeping. Attorneys negotiate deal terms across 15 matters simultaneously, review document rooms, draft shareholder agreements, and hop between calls with investors and opposing counsel. The work is fragmented by nature, and fragments slip through the cracks.
The Evaluation
Piloted Ajax Against PointOne. Chose Ajax.
Vela Wood ran a competitive pilot between Ajax and PointOne. The firm's Director of Technology, Andrew Lin, evaluated both platforms on accuracy, deployment overhead, and how well each tool captured the full scope of attorney work.
PointOne's metadata-based approach missed key workflows. It did not capture Slack conversations, and the entries it generated did not save attorneys meaningful time. One attorney on the PointOne pilot reported that she did not trust the entries enough to release them.
Ajax's screen-level capture saw the actual content of documents, emails, and Slack messages. The result: entries attorneys trusted, with minimal setup. Andrew noted that Ajax was up and running with minimal IT overhead, and the firm chose Ajax for the full rollout.
The Results
Core Firm Infrastructure
After the pilot, the Ajax team flew to Dallas to manage the broader firm rollout in person. Over a year later, Ajax remains core timekeeping infrastructure at Vela Wood, with 86% firm-wide adoption.
Metric | Value |
|---|---|
Active Users | 60 of 70 employees (86% adoption) |
Entries Released via Ajax (30 days) | 981 |
Billable Hours Released (30 days) | 986.7 |
Billable $ Released (30 days) | $419,743 |
Top User Adoption Rate | 87% of entries from Ajax |
“We got up and running in record time, with minimal IT overhead.”
Andrew Lin
Director of Technology
The Investment
Three Team Members Personally Invested in Ajax
What The Team Says
From the Managing Partner to the Associates
“By the 1st, there were 3 billable hours I wouldn't have caught. That's $1,500.”
Jeff Villalobos
Senior Attorney
“It's been seamless and gives me a few hours back every weekend.”
Bobby Gojuangco
Associate
